Locking and releasing means for the throwing arm on clay pigeon throwing apparatus

ABSTRACT

A clay pigeon trap is provided with a releasable catch device for holding the throwing arm in a rearwardly directed position, alongside a tubular shaft component, prior to a throwing stroke. The catch device has an upstanding bracket member on the shaft and has a vertically movable slide having a detent adapted to open and close the entrance to a V-shaped notch in the bracket member and to engage a loop, carried by the throwing arm, which enters into said notch. The slide is spring biassed to a raised catch position but can be moved to a lowered throwing arm release position either by turning a hand grip member carried by the tubular shaft or by depressing an upwardly projecting head portion.

United States Patent [191 Gustavsson LOCKING AND RELEASING MEANS FOR THE THROWING ARM ON CLAY PIGEON TI-IROWING APPARATUS [75] Inventor: Arne Gustafsson, Vikingstad,

Sweden [73] Assignee: Stiga AB, Trans, Sweden [22] Filed: Sept. 11, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 504,928

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Italy 124/22 [451 Oct. 7, 1975 Primary ExaminerRichard C. Pinkham Assistant ExaminerWilliam R. Browne Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Markva & Smith [57] ABSTRACT A clay pigeon trap is provided with a releasable catch device for holding the throwing arm in a rearwardly directed position, alongside a tubular shaft component, prior to a throwing stroke. The catch device has an upstanding bracket member on the shaft and has a vertically movable slide having a detent adapted to open and close the entrance to a V-shaped notch in the bracket member and to engage a loop, carried by the throwing arm, which enters into said notch. The slide is spring biassed to a raised' catch position but can be moved to a lowered throwing arm release position either by turning a hand grip member carried by the tubular shaft or by depressing an upwardly projecting head portion.

7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures Sheet. 2 0i 2 3,910,249

US. Patent Oct. 7,1975

US. Patent Oct. 7,1975 Sheet 2 of2 3,910,249

LOCKING AND RELEASING NIEANS FOR THE THROWING ARM ON CLAY PIGEON THROWING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Clay pigeon traps commonly comprise a tubular shaft provided with a casing at one end and with means for mounting on a support, and a throwing arm which is rotatably mounted by a pivot pin projecting downwards at right angles from the underside of said arm, said pivot pin fitting into a bearing in said casing, the arrangement being such that the throwing arm can be swivelled round to lie alongside the tubular shaft and can be held, ready for firing, inthis position against the force of a spring loading by means of a trigger release catch device.

Heretofore, such catch devices have usually had comparatively hard characteristics such that a considerable degree of force has been required for release. This in turn results in certain practical difficulties in trying to arrange for the release operation to be effected by automatic time setting devices and, in practice, a marksman has usually had to arrange for another person to operate and release the catch for firing.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide, for the throwing arm of a clay pigeon trap, an improved releasable catch device.

Broadly, the invention provides, in a clay pigeontrap having a throwing arm, a casing containing bearing means rotatably mounting said throwing arm, a rearwardly-directed tubular shaft projecting laterally from said casing, spring tensioning means for spring loading the throwing arm, and a laterally projecting retaining loop member towards the outer end of said throwing arm, a releasable catch device which is adapted to cooperate with said loop member to hold said throwing arm, against said spring loading, in a rearwardlydirected position alongside the tubular shaft prior to a throwing stroke so that, on release, the throwing arm executes a throwing stroke and swivels forwards through approximately 180 under the influence of the spring loading, wherein said releasable catch device comprises:

a. a bracket member upstanding on the tubular shaft at a position spaced from the rear free end of said shaft;

b. an upwardly-extending slideway provided by said bracket member;

0. an aperture in the top side of said tubular shaft in alignment with said slideway;

d. a slide member which is slidably mounted for up and down movement in said slideway and which extends through said aperture into the interior of said shaft;

e. a notch in the bracket member to receive the loop member of the throwing arm; and

f. detent means to engage said loop member, said detent means being carried by said slide member so that when the slide member is in a raised position the detent means closes the entrance to said notch to retain said loop member therein and when the slide member is depressed into a lowered release position the detent means disengages said loop member and opens the entrance to said notch thereby to release the throwing arm.

Other preferred features of releasable catch devices of clay pigeon traps constructed in accordance with the invention will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment, presented by way of example, which is illustrated in the accompanying diagrammatic drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings,

FIG. 1 is .a diagrammatic perspective view showing a clay pigeon trap provided with one form of releasable catch device in accordance with the invention; and

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing components of said releasable catch device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENT The clay pigeon trap which is illustrated in the drawings and which is provided with the releasable catch device represents a preferred embodiment and comprises a vertically-extending cylindrical casing 2 from the upper part of which a rearwardly-directed tubular shaft 1 projects laterally. The casing 2 supports a throwing arm 4 which is rotatably mounted in a bearing within the casing. The casing 2 also contains coil spring means (not shown) which can be tensioned, through a tensioning bush (not shown) and manually operable tensioning arm 5, so as to spring load the throwing arm so as to prepare for a throwing stroke when the throwing arm 4 is disposed alongside the tubular shaft 1.

Spaced from, but near to, its rear free end, the tubular shaft 1 is formed with a transverse slot 16 in its top side, and fitted into this slot is a perpendicularly upstanding plate-like bracket member 12.

The bracket member 12 is formed with a vertical slideway, in alignment with the slot 16, in which a slide member 13 is slidably mounted for up and down movement. The lower part of the slide member 13 extends through the slot 16 into the hollow interior of the shaft 1 and has a lower edge which can abut against the inner peripheral surface of said shaft.

The upper part of the slide member 13 has an upper edge portion from which upstands a hook-like bevelled detent projection 17 adapted to engage a laterally projecting retaining loop member 11 carried by the throwing arm 4 towards its outer end, as will hereinafter be more fully described.

The lower part of the slide member 13 is also engaged by a blade spring 22, disposed within the interior of the shaft 1, which biasses the slide member upwards to a raised rest position wherein the detent projection 17 contacts against an abutment 15 adjacent the top of the bracket member 12. Immediately below the abutment 15, the bracket member 12 is provided with a V- shaped notch 8 extending laterally inwards from a side edge, as shown.

The lower part of the slide member 13 which lies inside the interior of the shaft 1 also has notch 18 of rectangular form as shown in FIG. 2.

The slide member 13 is kept in place in the slideway of the bracket member 12 by a retaining plate 14 which is secured, by screws 23 for example, to the bracket member. This retaining plate 14 is also formed with a V-shaped notch 8 which corresponds to and registers with the notch 8 in the main plate body of the bracket member 12. The retaining plate 14 is wider than the member 12 so that it projects beyond the right-hand edge (as seen in FIG. 2) of the latter and the projecting portion is provided with a downwardly presented slot adapted to receive and retain the tensioning arm 5. At its rear free end, the tubular shaft 1 has a cylindrical hand grip member 6 rotatably mounted by means of a spigot portion 24 which is rotatably fitted within the interior of said shaft 1. The spigot portion 24 has projecting therefrom an eccentrically positioned release pin which extends in an axial direction and engages in the notch 18 of the slide member 13 so that when the grip member is turned angularly from an initial inoperative rest position to cause the pin 20 to bear against the lower edge of the notch 18, the slide member 13 is caused to be depressed and moved to'a lowered release position in which the tip of the detent projection l7 lies below the lower inclined edge of theV- shaped notch 8. As also shown in FIG. 2, the detent projection 17 is preferably bevelled to provide inclined side faces, and the inclination of the outwardly presented side face is steeper than the inclination of the lower edge of the V-shaped notch 8.

Adjacent the grip portion of the hand grip member 6, the spigot portion 24 is formed with a circumferential groove of uniform width in which is fitted a compression coil spring 21 arranged so that one end engages against an abutment (not shown) in the groove provided by said spigot portion and the other end engages against another abutment (not shown) which projects into the groove 25 from the interior peripheral surface of the tubular shaft 1. The spring 21 therefore acts between these two abutments so as to resist turning movement of the grip member 6 in the release direction which lowers the slide member 13, and thereby ensures that the grip member 6 returns to its initial inoperative rest position after being operated to lower the slide member. When in this rest position, the slide member -13 is acted upon only by the biassing blade spring 22 which ensures that the slide member is held in its raised position with the detent projection engaging hard against the abutment 15.

In operation, the trap may first be erected upon a support, such as a tree stump for example, by fitting an adjustable mounting spigot 3, carried by a bracket connected to the casing 2 and shaft 1, into an upstanding socket member (not shown) fixed to said support. From the forwardly projecting position shown in FIG. 1, the throwing arm 4 is then swung anticlockwise through approximately 180 and its loop member 11 is inserted into the notch 8. In this operation, the loop member will first contact and bear against the outwardly-presented inclined side face of the detent projection 17 which, in the raised position of the slide member 13, closes the entrance to the notch 8. But under pressure the loop member 11 will forcibly depress the detent projection 17 and slide member 13 until it has passed over the detent projection and enters the notch to be accommodated in a recess 19 which spaces the detent projection 17 from an upwardly extending head portion 9 of the slide member 13. The slide member then returns to its raised position so that the detent projection recloses the entrance to the notch 8 and retains the loop member in place with the throwing arm alongside the tubular shaft 1. After this stage, the tensioning arm 5 is swung clockwise to spring load the throwing arm 4 and is hooked into the slot 10. Then, the clay pigeon is fitted on the arm 4 and the trap is completely operative and ready for firing.

It should be noted that the head portion 9 extends upwardly well above the detent projection 17 and projects above the top edge of the bracket member 12 to such an extent that the slide member 13 can be moved to its lowered release position by depressing the head portion so that its tip lies level with said top edge of the bracket member 12. I j

' In order to fire the trap, the slide 13 may therefore then be depressed to its lowered release position either by turning the hand grip member 6 or by arranging to depress the projecting head portion 9 by, for example, an automatic release device, such as an external automatic time settingactuating device, arranged for cooperative engagement with said head portion 6.

As soon as the slide member is moved down to its release position, the detent project 17 disengages the loop member 11 and opens the entrance of the notch 8 so that the throwing arm 4 is released and swivels forwards through approximately under the influence of the spring loading, to execute a throwing stroke and project the clay pigeon.

Although only one embodiment of the invention has been specifically described by way ofexample, it will be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, modifications can be made in the structural details, an d the releasable catch device can be applied to different forms of clay pigeon traps provided with a tubular shaft having at one end a throwing arm mounted rotatably in a bearing.

I claim:

1. In a clay pigeon trap having a throwing arm, a casing containing bearing means rotatably-mounting s aid throwing arm, a rearwardly-directed tubular shaft projecting laterally from said casing, spring tensioning means for spring loading the throwing arm, and a laterally projecting retaining loop member towards the outer end of said throwing arm, a releasable catch device which is adapted to co-operate with said loop member to hold saidthrowing arm, against said spring loading, in a rearwardly-directed position alongside the tubular shaft prior to a throwingstroke so that, on release, the throwing arm executes a throwing stroke and swivels forwards through approximately 180 under the influence of the spring loading, wherein said releasable catch device comprises:

a. a bracket member upstanding on the tubular shaft at a position spaced from the rear freeend of said shaft;

b. an upwardly-extending slideway provided by said bracket member;

c. an aperture in thetop side of said tubular shaft in alignment with said slideway; I

d. a slide member which is slidably mounted for up and down movement in said slideway and which extends through said aperture into the interior of said shaft;

e. a notch in the bracket member to receive the loop member of the throwing arm; and

f. detent means to engage said loop member, said detent means being carriedby said slide member so I that when the slide member isin a raised position the detent means closes the entrance to said notch to retain said loop member therein and when the slide member is depressed into a lowered release position the detent means disengages said loop member and opens the entrance to said notch thereby to release the throwing arm.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the detent means comprises a bevelled detent projection upstanding from an upper edge of the slide member and the notch has a V-shaped configuration extending laterally inwards from a side edge of the bracket member.

3. A device according to claim 2, wherein an abutment is disposed on said slide member above and adjacent said notch, and spring means are disposed within the interior of the tubular shaft to bias the slide member upwards and thereby to urge the detent projection into contact with said abutment.

4. A device according to claim 3, wherein a lower part of the slide member disposed within the interior of the tubular shaft is provided with a slot, and wherein manually-operable release means for releasing the throwing arm are provided comprising a rotatable hand grip member carried by the rear free end of the tubular shaft, said hand grip member having a spigot portion rotatably fitted within the interior of said shaft and a release pin which projects from said spigot portion and extends in an axial direction, said release pin being engaged in said slot in the lower part of the slide member so that when the grip member is turned angularly from an inoperative rest position the release pin moves to cause the slide member to be depressed to its lowered release position.

5. A device according to claim 4, which further comprises a circumferential groove in the spigot portion of the hand grip member, an abutment provided by said spigot portion at one end of said groove, a second abutment provided by the tubular shaft which projects into said groove, and a coil spring disposed within said groove to act between said abutments and thereby bias the hand grip member to return to its said inoperative rest position after being operated to lower the slide member.

6. A device according to claim 3, wherein the slide member has a head portion which extends upwardly beyond the detent projection and projects above a top edge portion of the bracket member, when the slide member is in its raised position, such that the slide member can be moved to its lowered release position by depressing said head portion to a level which is not lower that the level of said top edge portion of the bracket member, to release the catch device.

7. A device according to claim 6, wherein the head portion of the slide member is spaced laterally from the detent projection so as to define a recess which opens upwardly and which has a width sufficient to accommodate the loop member engaged by said detent projectron. 

1. In a clay pigeon trap having a throwing arm, a casing containing bearing means rotatably mounting said throwing arm, a rearwardly-directed tubular shaft projecting laterally from said casing, spring tensioning means for spring loading the throwing arm, and a laterally projecting retaining loop member towards the outer end of said throwing arm, a releasable catch device which is adapted to co-operate with said loop member to hold said throwing arm, against said spring loading, in a rearwardlydirected position alongside the tubular shaft prior to a throwing stroke so that, on release, the throwing arm executes a throwing stroke and swivels forwards through approximately 180* under the influence of the spring loading, wherein said releasable catch device comprises: a. a bracket member upstanding on the tubular shaft at a position spaced from the rear free end of said shaft; b. an upwardly-extending slideway provided by said bracket member; c. an aperture in the top side of said tubular shaft in alignment with said slideway; d. a slide member which is slidably mounted for up and down movement in said slideway and which extends through said aperture into the interior of said shaft; e. a notch in the bracket member to receive the loop member of the throwing arm; and f. detent means to engage said loop member, said detent means being carried by said slide member so that when the slide member is in a raised position the detent means closes the entrance to said notch to retain said loop member therein and when the slide member is depressed into a lowered release position the detent means disengages said loop member and opens the entrance to said notch thereby to release the throwing arm.
 2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the detent means comprises a bevelled detent projection upstanding from an upper edge of the slide member and the notch has a V-shaped configuration extending laterally inwards from a side edge of the bracket member.
 3. A device according to claim 2, wherein an abutment is disposed on said slide member above and adjacent said notch, and spring means are disposed within the interior of the tubular shaft to bias the slide member upwards and thereby to urge the detent projection into contact with said abutment.
 4. A device according to claim 3, wherein a lower part of the slide member disposed within the interior of the tubular shaft is provided with a slot, and wherein manually-operable release means for releasing the throwing arm are provided comprising a rotatable hand grip member carried by the rear free end of the tubular shaft, said hand grip member having a spigot portion rotatably fitted within the interior of said shaft and a release pin which projects from said spigot portion and extends in an axial direction, said release pin being engaged in said slot in the lower part of the slide member so that when the grip member is turned angularly from an inoperative rest position the release pin moves to cause the slide member to be depressed to its lowered release position.
 5. A device according to claim 4, which further comprises a circumferential groove in the spigot portion of the hand grip member, an abutment provided by said spigot portion at one end of said groove, a second abutment provided by the tubular shaft which projects into said groove, and a coil spring disposed within said groove to act between said abutments and thereby bias the hand grip member to return to its said inoperativE rest position after being operated to lower the slide member.
 6. A device according to claim 3, wherein the slide member has a head portion which extends upwardly beyond the detent projection and projects above a top edge portion of the bracket member, when the slide member is in its raised position, such that the slide member can be moved to its lowered release position by depressing said head portion to a level which is not lower that the level of said top edge portion of the bracket member, to release the catch device.
 7. A device according to claim 6, wherein the head portion of the slide member is spaced laterally from the detent projection so as to define a recess which opens upwardly and which has a width sufficient to accommodate the loop member engaged by said detent projection. 